Mayor's lateness causes rift at Board of Estimates meeting

Frustrated over what he perceives as frequent lateness by the mayor, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young attempted to start Wednesday morning's Board of Estimates meeting without her.

At 9 a.m., the posted start time of the spending panel's public meeting, Young and Comptroller Joan Pratt left a side meeting room and took their seats atop the dais of the five-member board.

Young, the chairman of the panel, struck his gravel and attempted to call the meeting to order -- without Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who was late, or her two appointees on the board, who remained seated in a side room.

"I'm ready to start the Board of Estimates," Young told the audience. "I'm waiting on [City Solicitor] George Nilson and [Director of Public Works Alfred] Foxx and I'm waiting on the mayor. I'm ready to start the Board of Estimates. We have a quorum to start. City Solicitor Nilson informed the other board members not to attend."

Young and Pratt remained seated atop the dais, while Nilson, Foxx and other staffers of the mayor stayed in the side room, until Rawlings-Blake arrived, 11 minutes later.

As a group, the mayor's staff then approached and took their seats. Rawlings-Blake, Young and Pratt then spoke to each other in hushed voices.

After the meeting was over, Young began to walk from the room. Before he left, Young and Rawlings-Blake's chief of staff, Alexander Sanchez, exchanged heated words.

"I'm always respectful of the mayor," Young told Sanchez. "She called me an [expletive]."

Young and Rawlings-Blake have been at odds over a number of issues in the past year, including funding recreation centers and fire companies slated for closure.

In January, after Young wrote an opinion piece in The Sun opposing a second Grand Prix race, Rawlings-Blake rescinded an invitation to him and his wife to join her in the city's skybox at M&T Bank Stadium to watch a Ravens playoff game.